G&G RK104 (AK104) Initial review

[Gish]

Well it's here. An AK varient i've always wanted. I've got some big plans for this rifle.

Initial Unboxing/Packaging

The box arrived in my doorstep in record time
The artwork on the box is very nice.


Contents are well packed


The first thing I noticed when taking the gun out of the packaging is this:


Rust! on the selector switch. A little bit of a bizzare place to find such an item

Also the top reciever cover seems to be made of either a cheap material or it came off a real AK at one point.



Nothing that a little sandpaper and paint can take care of.

Overall this AK looks pretty nice



Internals (Non Gearbox)

This AK has the ability to be stripped like the real deal. The foregrip retainer pins work as promised which makes stripping it down not a problem.
I'm not sure why G&G decided to do this but the top bolt has a full gas return system installed. It's a nice step for them to add to the realism i'll give them that.
With that you can rack the bolt all the way back like a real steel AK, unlike the half rack of the Mauri AK. It also gives a satisfying metal clack. And theres no worry of breaking it like an Mp5 slap I can tell you that




The hop up is of similar design to the Mauri AK (Why mess with a good design)
They have however given you a larger knob for adjusting.



Stock / Battery

The stock is solid plastic. It has a bit of a rough texture to it but is quite solid. Overall the plastic of the rifle is nice.
The size of the stock however is Massive! It seems to be modeled after a Nato length stock. I am able to easily fit a large 9.6V battery in the stock.
The buttplate is held on by screws. While cumbersome if you ever need to change in the field with the size of battery you can cram into it I doubt you'll ever need to.


Front End

@#$*@#%&@#$@&#!!!!!
I was going to model this rifle after a real steel picture. Imagine an AK104 with a PBS-1 Silencer, Kobra Red Dot and Znich Tactical light. Ok? Well to my huge suprise the flash hider is NOT 14mm. It's upwards of 20+mm is size making my PBS silencer useless on this rifle. I'll have to find a machine shop to rethread it.


Shooting / HiCap

This Ak comes with a 550 round hi cap magazine. The mag itself is a little on the light and cheap side and I can see it breaking in the near future. Unlike other mags the front lip of this Magazine is made of plastic and not metal. I can see that bit breaking.
The catch on the mag is pretty good. One thing though is that G&G decided to add a bit of rubber to the magazine area, this is to prevent wobble of the magazines, however at the moment it is causing feed issues with the rifle. I can see with a bit of shaving or some wear in that this issue will go away.



I do not have a crono here at home but it's been reported the rifle is clocked around 330-340Fps. Next field chance I get I will verify that. Basement blinking it can easily go through two solid layers of cardboard.
So far a bit of plinking here in the basement it shoots very nicely. It has a bit of a louder clack vs a Mauri gearbox. With the 9.6v I have it has a very high rate of fire. I shall be downgrading to a 8.4 in the near future.



Overall I am very pleased with this rifle. hopefully I can get the sidemount plate and accessories on this AK in the near future and give it some field time to see how it performs. When I do I shall update this post.

Pros:
-Good solid feel to the rifle
-Full metal design
-Proper markings and dimples
-Field strips like the real deal
-Performance is quite good
-Bolt is satisfying
-Large stock for battery.

Cons:
-Rust? weird reciever metal.
-Barrel threading is NOT 14mm (grr)
-Stock is a little long
-Included hi cap may break in the near future

At the moment I rate the gun at a good solid 9.5/10
Hopefully the mechbox is up to standards and it shall be checked in the near future.

[Mud Gunner]

Looks like it is a well made, well thought out airsoft rifle. I really like the concpet of the "real steel" imitation internals- looks very realistic!

The Russians never seem to stray far from the weapons design they have proven effective, mostly everything they have is based on the venerable AK. Just goes to show you if it aint broke, don't fix it.

I now have an itch for anotehr airsoft gun- gee thank Gish!

Mud

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Is that front sight plastic?

it looks like it is.....

just waiting for the ICS all metal AK.... then I gotta decide which one?

I like the replicated upper receiver internals on this one...

[mcguyver]

that adapter for the flashider doesn't come off? it looks like it should as the retaining pin is indented into the "adapter". my c.a. ak was the same way and mine came off to reveal a 14mm - thread underneath.

[Gish]

Brian: Nope the front sight is metal, the only plastic in the gun are the stock/foregrips/pistol grip, hop up unit, Mag, and misc bits in the mechbox.

And unfortunatly no the threads on the flashider do not come off. I was hoping it was like the CA as well but further examination reveals it's a solid piece. It does look like there are 14mm but no luck.

[mcguyver]

keep us apprised of it's reliability.

[Dozer_01]

The gun looks pretty nice. The rust kinda turned me off. It would be like buying a brand new car with rust... not cool at all. Sure you can paint it...but why the hell should you have to go out of your own way to restore it back to what it should have arrived in.

All the best Gish!

Cheers

[attack-beaver]

well first off good review, the rest is weird even new out of the box???. u now gish you could tap and die the silencer to make it fit or i could make u an adaptor for you if u like i am going to the tac-ops this monday if u want me to stop bye and we can talk there about the idea.

[Shlappy]

I recieved my 104 on friday. It had none of the rust issues that Gish's had. Most likely was an isolated incident.

I have yet to fire the rifle but it sure feels nice!! :tup:

I will post a follow up in the spring when I get a few games in and we can see what the reliability will be like.

[Igor01]

The threading on the real steel AK barrel is like 24 mm if I remember correctly, not sure why G&G would replicate that rather than sticking with 14 mm negative threading that will accomodate most airsoft silencers. Sure, the real PBS might fit now, but try getting your hands on one

[Gish]

Glad to hear that Shlappy. Guess it was a minor problem. Does your top reciever also look a little weird too?

Igor- A rough measurement makes it 23ish mm, which i'm sure is actually 24 @ the threads themselves.



*Update*
Went to a skirmish day today (Jan 14th +5 in Western Canada, go figure)

Overall I am very pleased with this gun. I ran it on a 9.6v battery for now as thats all I have, Full auto was very fast and the Semi shots very snappy. I'm not sure if I plan on using that for all the time or not but i'll play a few games like that to see how it holds up.
The hop-up was very easy to adjust and quite solid. The first few mags through the gun had a few wild shots but near the end of the day it was rock solid with a little bit of wear in. (Fired maybe two high caps worth in total)
Even though it has a shorter barrel the accuracy and range of this gun is very good. Using Guarder .20's for the day I was able to place shots where I wanted. Hopefully my side rails will come in soon so I can mount on my Kobra red dot.

I had as suspected an issue with feeding however. Because there is a rubber pad in the magwell it is causing issues with the mag not catching solid. I tried taking it out, but as it turns out this piece of rubber needs to be there, with no rubber the mags wobble everywhere.
In the time being I had to add some tape to the rear of the mag catch to keep it tighter.
It also seems that the Mag catch itself is short sized when compared even to the TM Ak. Either modding the catch itself, shaving some rubber off the magwell, or adding more material to the rear mag catchs of all my magazines is in order.

Still i'm very happy with this gun at the moment and hopefully none of the regular G&G issues occur with this gun.

[Shlappy]

Originally Posted by Gish

Glad to hear that Shlappy. Guess it was a minor problem. Does your top reciever also look a little weird too?

Yes it does, like they painted the top reciever as an after thought or something. In fact, the quality is alot different then the rest of the rifle. Oh well, maybe a guarder ribbed top reciever will be in order some where down the line.

Also, you better post some pictures when you get the kobra RDS mounted. I wonder, can you use a real steak AK mount on airsoft guns?? Would be nice if I could buy the sight and mount at the same time!

[Berkut]

Here is another RK-104 review, looks good, has some advice for "out of a box" guns...
Me wants it...

[Gish]

Threads measured to be 20mm with digital calipers.
Hmmm.

[Red Ghost]

I'm curious as to where you got your PBS-1 Silencer, as i have a friend looking for one to slap on his TM AK-47